John Cena and The Marine

October 14, 2006

Iíve been getting a ton of email asking me about John Cena and his newly released movie the Marine, so I thought I could take a look at both this week. For starters let me say that I will NOT be seeing The Marine. This is not because I think it will be a bad movie, itís because I was SICK to DEATH of the damn thing a month ago.

In my opinion WWE has over exposed the hell out of this thing to the point where they may be driving away potential fans. I know for a fact they drove me away. I like action movies and would have gone to see this film out of curiosity and support to the company, but after 2 months of trailers and behind the scenes looks, I am so tired of hearing about it I donít want to see it anymore.

There is at least 2 or 3 plugs for the film per WWE program, which in the course of a week means I have to see the same damn trailer or clip nearly 10 times per week, and they have been pushing it for about 2 months. If you do the match it means Iíve likely seen 75 Ė 100 Marine promos. (Theyíve started airing on Spike during TNA too so it could even be higher.) In class this week we joked that if you taped all of the video clips and promos for the film that WWE aired you could probably edit them together and not only have the entire film, but all the DVD special features as well.

I understand the concept of a hard sell and making sure people know about the film but WWE fans are likely the ones that are going to be most willing to see this film in the first place so they donít need it shoved down their throats. I would imagine most WWE viewers decided after the first trailer whether they planned to see this movie or not. If this movie is going to make any money non WWE fans are going to have to see it too and I have seen virtually no promotion for the film out side of the wrestling world.

Another sad thing is that it isnít even getting that bad of reviews and you know with a WWE logo on it critics want to slam it hard. Sure itís a mindless action movie but there is nothing wrong with that, itís not like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone havenít made a career out of mindless action movies. It certainly canít be any worse than some of the Vin Diesel action flicks. Oh well regardless of how good or bad it is I wonít be seeing it, WWE has managed to make me sick to death of it before it even opened. Perhaps if the hype dies down and they donít plug the hell out of the DVD release Iíll rent it when it hits my local video store.

Now on to John Cena, because Iíve been getting a ton of email wanting me to address John Cena and his claims of not ever taking Steroids. Let me start of by saying I can only SPECULATE as I donít know John that well and he has never denied nor admitted steroid use to me. If I had to guess, which I guess I am, Iíd say heís done something be it steroids, HGH, what have you. I find it damn near impossible to believe that anyone can get that large and ripped (and heís been a fair bit bigger in the past) without chemical assistance. That being said if I didnít know me I likely would have said the same about me when I was in my best shape, and I know for a fact Iíve never taken ANYTHING. Perhaps he is playing semantics as Iíve only ever heard him say heís never taken ďsteroidsĒ and maybe he uses other physique enhancing drugs, orÖhereís a crazy thought he could always be telling the truth.

There are a few things that do support Johnís claims, which certainly donít rule out drug use but shouldnít be over looked either. Some of the more common signs of steroid use are: body acne, frequent muscle tears, gynecomastia, and testicular atrophy. John does not have the typical back acne commonly associated with steroid use, to my knowledge he has never been sidelined with muscle tears, he has no signs of gyno (enlarged breast tissue) nor the tell tale scars from gyno removal surgery, due to his ring attire however the jury is still out on the testicular atrophy. (If he wore standard trunk we would have a much clearer idea on this front, as disturbing a picture as that is) Again these signs are not 100% proof one way or the other but playing the averages they do support his claims, at least on the steroid front. Iím not sure what side effects other common physique enhancing alternatives have such as, HGH, Insulin manipulation, or synthol. I guess it all comes down to whether you want to believe him or not. I still tend to be skeptical, a side effect of being in the wrestling business, but to be honest, I donít really care one-way or the other.